Teen Titans #54: "Rise of the Wildebeests" part 3

-2-

Raven teleported back and forth, terrorizing one here, incapacitating one with her soul self there.

It was as Pantha had said; there was a presence in the temple, something strong and fierce and alien. In some ways, it reminded her of the parasitic awareness that had been in the meteorite that had struck near New York, so long ago now. Not identical, but similar. Perhaps they shared a common heritage; remnants of the same destroyed long-lost alien civilization, perhaps.

But while the alien presence had learned to repulse Pantha's avatar, it could not repulse her, or any of the other Titans. Perhaps it sensed or realize this; Raven was not prepared to speculate on it's degree of sentience. But if so, then it was trying to use it's forces to fend them off, prevent them from reaching it's physical manifestation, whatever that might be.

They would have to bull their way through. Oh, they could send Wallace or Kory ahead, but it made more sense to take out the Wildebeests first.

Then again, with their numbers reinforced by Titans West...she telepathically sent the suggestion to Richard. Nightwing considered it, then rejected it. He pointed out that whichever one of them went on ahead, would be alone....and vulnerable to whatever innate defenses the thing had. Best not to take the risk.

Raven sighed, understanding his logic, and focused on her next enemy.

-4-

For once, Kid Flash's problem wasn't a shortage of enemies. Even at his speed, there were plenty of Wildebeest to go around.

Also, they were fairly resilient, and tended to get up quickly. His super speed punches and kicks needed to be delivered three, sometimes even four times before the enemy went down and stayed down.

He learned quickly to sweep the leg, then pummel the Wildebeest four, five times. Of course pausing that long left the risk that one of them would get hold of him.

Eventually, of course, one of them did.

It grabbed him by the back of the neck and lifted him up. It's other hand grabbed the small of his back, pulling at the flesh with long talons.

“No,” he murmured. “Not again.”

He twisted and writhed at super speed, and broke free. Landing uneasily, he stumbled around to face the enemy. It swatted at him, and he ducked back just in time.

He landed three quick strikes just to disorient it, then applied one of Barry's old tricks' he extended one arm and began spinning it.

Very, very fast.

A whirlwind started up, and blew the Wildebeest back into two of it's fellows.

Kid Flash laughed. It had been a long journey from his injury to his recovery to romancing Raven, but he finally felt back up to speed.

He took off again.

-6-

Beast Boy and Cyborg had hooked up with Bumblebee. Though they did not know it, they faced the prime Wildebeest; the one that had, in life, been Edwin Steel.

Bumblebee flew high, unleashing sonic disruptions and force blasts at the enemy. Beast Boy shifted to a monstrous form not unlike the Wildebeest itself, and waded in. Cyborg started out by blasting away with his white noise cannon, then moved in directly to assist Beast Boy.

The prime Wildebeest would rather have fought the Pantha guardian spirit or slaughtered helpless villagers, sparing a few to increase his numbers. But he was nothing if not adaptable. He had no ranged attacked per se, but as the oldest of the Wildebeests he was stronger and faster, and could take a lot more punishment.

He kicked Beast Boy away and ripped up a chunk of ground to throw up at Bumblebee. She dodged his throw easily, however, and this allowed Cyborg to close in.

Cyborg struck hard, and the Wildebeest staggered back, then lashed out with a kick. Cyborg wasn't significantly hurt, but he was sent tumbling.

Beast Boy took the form of a snake and wrapped himself around the Wildebeest, trying to choke him into submission, but this of course meant Bumblebee couldn't fire for fear of hitting him. With an effort, the Wildebeest pried Beast Boy's snake form off and tried to tear him in two, but Beast Boy shifted to insect and buzzed away.

Without the need for words, the three Titans realized about simultaneously that they needed to coordinate their attacks in order to win against this foe. Beast Boy shifted to a giant green gorilla, and the two of them moved together as one, synchronizing their strikes. Bumblebee, in turn, timed her shots between their blows.

But they weren't the only ones who understood the value of teamwork. The Wildebeest Prime could telepathically summon aid from it's followers. It did so now, bringing two of them into the fray.

But before they could arrive, Raven took down one and Kid Flash knocked out the other. And it knew that if it drew too many troops to it's side, the remainder would be taken down by the Titans.

What irony, it thought, that it's greatest threat would not come from the bothersome Pantha, after all these years.

-8-

Omen was not the most physical combatant, and she lacked Raven's transportation and soul self abilities.

But she was not without options.

She reached out and touched the nearest Wildebeest, startling and weakening it, but more importantly making a psychic link with it, seeing the person it had been.

The terrified villager had been forcibly converted seven years ago, She saw the terrible alien device—though she thought of it as an altar—saw and felt the conversion, a terrifying process. It explained many things to her, but most of all, she was able to show these same horrible truths to the creature itself.

The Wildebeest staggered, shrieked, and fell on it's knees shivering, out of the fight. She tried it again on the next Wildebeest, but this one resisted her wisdom, and tried to attack.

So she dodged it's blows and touched it's forehead....and put it to sleep. It slumped unconscious at her feet, and she stalked off into the battle.

-10-


Scarlet Wing and Dagon were operating as a team. She was still unnerved by the vampire, but he seemed genuinely sympathetic to her situation, and was helping.

She flew low, with him in mist form just beneath her. She hurled her eggsplosives left and right, and he occasionally shifted out of mist and attacked a Wildebeest.

He had tried to feed on one of them only once; their blood was strange, and full of bile. He had spat it out. But he could still wreak havoc amongst their number, and that is what he did.

“Hey scarlet! Throw me!”

She looked down at him and blinked, then nodded her understanding. She picked him up and threw him into the nearest Wildebeest, which went down sprawling. He proceeded to claw and kick at it. It was stronger; but he was faster.

A Wildebeest grabbed Scarlet Wing's ankle, She shouted, the kicked it in the face with her free foot, three times.

One the second strike the Wildebeest tried to bite her foot, but only succeeded in losing a tooth. It let go, and she hurled three eggsplosives at it. The resulting explosion knocked it down.

Checking that Dagon was okay, she shot upwards and banked left. Seeing Golden Eagle coming back down, she went to assist him.

-12-

Beast Boy, Cyborg and Bumblebee were wearing the prime Wildebeest down. But his strength and endurance kept him going.

A straight shot from his right claw sent Beast Boy tumbling back; then he grabbed Cyborg by the throat and threw him at Bumblebee. She shouted and dodged, then tried to catch him; she managed it, but he was too heavy, and she sank under his weight.

Starfire came and caught Cyborg from below. Between her and Bumblebee they eased him down.

Sensing weakness, the prime Wildebeest advanced towards them. But at that moment Beast Boy was back, charging into him in the form of a rhino. The prime Wildebeest went down and Beast Boy proceeded t trample right over him. But still he got back up, bloody, bruised and shaken.

Beast Boy turned to face him, and was surprised when the prime Wildebeest lowered his head and charged. This was, of course, amusing to the changeling. “And here I thought I was horny,” he said, taking bull form and rushing to meet him.

They impacted with a massive thud, but while the prime Wildebeest did stagger back, Beast Boy slumped into unconsciousness and shifted back to human form.

Sensing weakness in the enemy again, the prime Wildebeest raced towards him, preparing to deliver a vicious kick. But before he got there, he suddenly found himself yanked into the air.

Scarlet Wing had him by one arm and Golden Eagle had him by the other. His cloven feet flailed wildly, six inches above the ground.

Before he could figure a way around the situation, Risk came in and struck once, hard. Then Kid Flash took his turn, pummeling the creature at super-speed, a total of thirty-seven times.

Now the Wildebeest was reeling. Risk came in for another shot, directly to the monster's face; and finally, Cyborg blasted him with a blistering left hook.

The Wildebeest prime sagged in the arms of Scarlet Wing and Golden Eagle, and they dropped him.

Looking around the battlefield, they saw Dagon, Terra and Rose finishing off what was left of the opposition. Jericho jumped out of his host, and the others took that one down too. Terra and Cyborg noticed Beast Boy's condition, and rushed over to him.

Raven's soul self flowed over him. “He has a concussion and has lost a few teeth. But he will recover.”

“Our dentist is gonna be busy,” Terra said, but there was relief in her face.

“So, is that it?” Rose asked, breathless and sweating.

“Not quite,” Omen said. “In one of their minds, I saw the source of all this.”

Jericho gestured with his fingers; sign language. “Yeah, Joey saw it in the mind of his host too,” Rose translated.

“It must be destroyed,” Omen said. “Raven, Cyborg; it will take all three of us to accomplish it.”

“I'll update Pantha,” Kid Flash said, and ran off.

-14-

Pantha felt the weight of the darkness disperse. Cautiously, she prowled into the battlefield, finally free to do so. She saw what the Titans saw; most of the Wildebeest were slowly shifting back to normal.

Most, not all. Five of the Wildebeest remained as they were. These were the prime Wildebeest and his first four recruits. They were too old as Wildebeests; the transformation had happened too long ago. Their transformation was permanent.

Pantha wanted to kill them where they lay. The Titans wouldn't like that. She didn't care if they did; but they might try to stop her. And she knew she couldn't take on all of them at once.

Besides, they had done what she and the previous Pantha guardians had been unable to do; defeat the enemy, once and for all.

This struck her as somewhat odd; she was without purpose now.

The Titans came out of the temple. Cyborg was carrying the ruined machine.

“So, most of them changed back,” said Nightwing. “Good. There were three more converts inside; they're changing back too.

“Villagers, all of them,” Pantha said. “They'd been raiding the people—some of them my people—for some time now.”

“Do you want to help them back to the villages?” Raven asked.

Pantha hissed a sigh. “Want to, yes. Can actually do so, no. I'm not kind. And most of them will have been lost for years anyway. Things will have changed in their villages...those villages that still survive at all. I'm more interested in what you'll do with these that stayed in 'Beest form.”

“Well, we can't leave them here,” Nightwing said. “We'll take them back with us, hand them over to STAR Labs for study. They'll probably be weakened, but best not to take any chances.”

It would be safer to kill them, but Pantha decided not to argue the point. “Very well.”

“What about you?” Bumblebee asked. “No point in you staying here, if you can't help them.”

“Well, from what you've told me, there are still things I can do here. Scaring off the slash and burn loggers of the rainforest, for a start.”

“Or you could come with us,” Bumblebee said. “See more of the world. Help us fight the myriad evils of the world.”

Pantha considered for a long moment. “I will probably come back here eventually. But yes, I will go with you.....for now.”